B.A. Gordon College; M.A. Harvard University (History); M.A. Bryn Mawr College; Ph.D. Bryn Mawr College

Contact and Office Hours

Office: Parker Hall 311
Phone: (718) 390-3372
E-mail: sbernard@wagner.edu
Office hours (fall 2013):

 Current Courses (Spring 2013)

EN 212 Introduction to Literary Analysis and Theory 1-2:30 M/W
EN 323 Aliens, Cyborgs and Time Travel in Literature and Film 2:40-4:10 T/TH

 Academic, Teaching and Personal Interests

My recent scholarship focuses on ecocritical readings of science fiction and especially the various constructions of place science fiction works feature. I am working on an edited book tentatively titled Environments in Science Fiction: Beyond Dystopias that will be published by McFarland as part of their series called Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy. My chapter in the volume will focus on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I have also done work on Victorian literature, fairy tales and film (especially Alfred Hitchcock’s and Tim Burton’s films). I teach an array of courses including World Literature, Literary Analysis and Theory, Science Fiction (Aliens, Cyborgs and Time Travel) and The Study of Fairy Tales. I also teach courses that focus on 18th- and 19th-century British Literature: Romantic Poetry, Revolution, the Slave Trade and Women’s Rights; Crime and Violence in the Eighteenth Century; Orphans, Poverty and Scandal in 19th-century British Literature; and Ghosts, Vampires and Civilization in English Gothic Fiction. When I am not teaching, going to conferences or writing criticism, I like to catch up on film viewing, read murder mysteries, entertain our cats and take walks.

Selected Presentations and Publications

Environments in Science Fiction: Beyond Dystopias(working title for edited book in progress.)Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, expected publication date late 2013/early 2014.

“Nature, Community and the Self in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Nicola Griffith’s Slow River.” Ed. Chris Baratta. Environmentalism in the Realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. 59-68.

“Nature/Culture Misery in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales” presented at an interdisciplinary conference on Oscar Wilde, Drew University, Madison, NJ/ June 2012.

 ”Suicide, Secrecy, and Language in Collins’s The Law and the Lady” presented at the Victorians Institute Conference, Tuscaloosa, AL/November, 2007

Ursula K. Le Guin:  A Critical Companion.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 2006. (co-author Graham J. Murphy)

Awards, Honors, and Service

I am currently on the Academic Policy Committee and am Acting Chair of English for spring 2013. I am a River Watcher with the Musconetcong Watershed Association, which means I attend training refresher sessions every year and do monitoring of the health of the Musconetcong River along with a team of volunteers. I recently received an award for excellence in teaching from Wagner College (Fall 2012).